


Who Got Away

by babel



Category: Marble Hornets
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-15
Updated: 2012-09-15
Packaged: 2017-11-14 08:03:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/513080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babel/pseuds/babel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jay didn't go to find Alex after receiving the call for help in Entry #26.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who Got Away

Jay keeps the box in his closet, wrapped in an old shirt, stuffed in the corner under the camera he never uses anymore. He never looks at it, but he knows it's there.

It's a reminder that Alex asked for help, and Jay chose to save himself instead.

* * *

He sees her in a cafe window about a year and a half after he received the box on the floor of that hotel hallway. Her hair is shorter, but he recognizes her immediately. He goes in and orders a coffee and watches her eat a sandwich, trying to convince himself it's not her. He almost succeeds, but then she stands up and walks over, sitting down across from him.

"Who are you?" she asks.

Jay blinks at her, then clears his throat. "Uh, sorry, I just. You look familiar." He pauses, then decides to ask. "Do you know Alex Kralie?"

She doesn't react, except that her jaw clenches just a little.

"I was, uh, one of his friends. In college. Does he live around here now?"

"Which friend are you?"

"Jay."

She nods, as if she expected the answer. She pushes a strand of her now jaw-length blonde hair behind her ear. "Can you meet me back here in about an hour, Jay? I'd... Like to talk about Alex, but I have to do something first."

"Sure. Y--" She's already on her feet, before he can finish the word. "Yeah. I'll be here."

He watches her go, and he leaves too.

An hour later, there's hardly anyone left in the cafe, and _she_ definitely isn't there. But there's a paper bag on the table where he'd been sitting before. He takes it, and he decides to never come back to this cafe. Or the street it's on.

Maybe he'll move to another town.

* * *

There's a envelope in the bag with neat, unfamiliar handwriting.

_To Jay  
Who Got   
Away_

Inside the envelope there's a flash drive with _Fin_ written on its side in black marker.

Jay puts it back in the envelope and packs it up with the box and the camera and shoves all of it into the trunk of his car.

* * *

There is one video file on the flash drive.

He's on the side of the road at night. The land is flat. No trees in sight. It makes him feel safer, even if it is probably just the illusion of safety.

For a long time, he just looks at the file, also labeled fin. He hovers the cursor over it, trying to will himself to either watch it or delete it. Probably delete it. Format the drive. Forget all about this again.

He taps the touchpad, and a window opens, filling his screen with darkness.

* * *

There is rustling before there's any image. Alex is too close to the camera, adjusting it before he finally backs away and sits on the ground of what looks like an abandoned house. There's debris all over the floor, the paint on the wall is peeling, there's bright blue graffiti behind him.

There's bright red on his hands.

"So, uh. I just left a message on Amy's voicemail. I gave her instructions on what to do when she gets here. I was going to send her away before, but, when _you_ didn't show up..."

Alex looks off to his left. Someone's lying on the ground, but only his legs are visible, and something that looks like a cable of some sort, twisting downward, apparently attached to some part of the upper body.

"Don't trust her. I know she got this to you, but don't trust her. You know better, right? It seems like you probably know better." He looks at the camera. "I killed Tim. Maybe you could track down his family and let them know, or something. I don't know. Maybe not knowing is better, right?" He laughs hollowly. "I killed some other people, too. That's going to stop now, though."

There is a sound, somewhere off camera. Alex looks toward it, his eyes wide and alert, then after a moment he shakes his head. He lifts up his shirt a little and there's a cut in his side, just above the gun in his waistband. "I probably would've killed you if you'd come. I probably would've killed Amy too, instead of sending her away. I would've panicked. That's two people you saved." He kicks at the foot of the body on the floor and watches it shift to the side. 

He looks back up at the camera, and his eyes are intense and a little red around the edges. "Don't remember me like this, okay?" he says, and he lifts the gun to his head.

The video turns to static, and when it comes back, Alex is gone. The blood is there, though, splattered in contrast with the blue graffiti. 

After a few minutes, Amy appears in the shot. She is strangely calm as she picks up the camera and turns it off.

* * *

Jay sits in his car for a long time, resting his head against the steering wheel and and his eyes squeezed shut. Before he starts driving again, he throws the flash drive out of the window and decides to forget he ever saw it.

He got himself out of this once. He can do it again.

He stops at a hotel a few miles further down the road. He passes three people in the hall on the way to his room, and he pretends that he doesn't glance up at each one to be sure it isn't Alex.

* * *

He lays awake in the hotel bed for half an hour before he goes out to his car and drives back through the flat landscape. He stops after a few miles and finds the flash drive laying on the pavement, waiting for him.

He hopes Amy is still waiting too.


End file.
